An extension of the authors corrosive vision of the American family - and civilization - in decline. The setting is a squalid farm home occupied by a family filled with suppressed violence and an unease born of deep-seated unhappiness, the characters are a ranting, alcoholic grandfather; a sanctimonious grandmother; and their sons Tilden, and Bradley. Into their midst comes Vince, a grandson none of them recognizes or remembers. The family harbours a dark secret - years earlier the grandfather, had buried and unwanted newborn baby in an undisclosed spot, creating a cloud of guilt which is dispelled only when Tilden unearths the child's mummified remains. His act purges the family, at last, of its infamy, and suggest the perhaps slim possibility of a new beginning.

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